I file these records under the "Who-The-Heck-Bought-These-Things"
category. These LPs were thrifted by an old roommate of
mine, still in their shrink-wrap, and I had to BEG him
(ultimately sacrificing a couple of Pioneer speakers)
for their possession. It would appear that back in the
early 1980's, when America's obsession with video games
was still in its infancy, the good people at Atari recognized
that their was a significant population of people (namely
children under the age of 6) who, due to lack of eye-hand
coordination, were unable to spend their money and time
playing video games.

Recognizing the injustice of this situation,
Atari had the folks at Kid Stuff Records put out albums
with stories and music about popular video games to prime
these young people for the glorious day when, they too,
could waste precious hours (perhaps eventually years)
of their childhood's holding a joystick while staring
at a video screen.

However, one good thing appears to have
come out of the project: the music. While no credits are
given to the musicians, one can only hope the Gary Numan
cover band they recruited to do these tunes were laughing
themselves sick at the end of the session. I know I was
the first time I heard this monstrosity!

Sammy Reed writes:
I have the "Yars' Revenge" and "Asteroids"
albums. I'd say they all have equally dopey songs. I'm
still marvelling at why anyone would use a toy 1980 Casio
keyboard, with that cheap "bonk, TIC, bonkbonkTIC"
sound, on a commercial recording. In this particular sound
file, it's more noticable on "Missile Command",
but it was used a lot in other songs in the Kids' Stuff
Atari albums.

Rob G. writes:
I wanted to let you and those playing along at home that
you can download that entire Yar's Revenge album and a
Asteroids album, plus a really weird cardboard promo for
another Atari game (Mindscape) at the Digital Press web
site. The site is http://www.digitpress.com
Direct URL for the downloads is http://digitalpress.5u.com/mp3.htm.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the goods, though
there's also a lot of cool re-mixes of classic video game
themes people have done there. I'd also encourage people
who've had their nostalgia sparked by this selection to
sign up for the message board. It's pretty much the hub
for retro-gaming conversation!

Rocketboy writes:
Garsh! I still have fond memories of wasting hours playing
"Yars' Revenge". Despite the obvious technical improvements
(COSMETIC!!) in videogames since their inception, I have
yet to find many that could challenge "Yars'" for sheer
white-knuckle fun and frustration. Easily the best game
to ever feature on the Atari 2600 console. Flyyyyy yar
warriors flyyyyyy!

Pixelface writes:
Well, I think the whole Atari suite is perhaps the funniest
thing that I've ever heard. Nothing could prepare me for
the casio VL-Tone intro to Missile Command, and the oh
so poignant tale of a race of pacifists forced to fight
- well something - and also practice to fight, insult
to injury. If only someone had made an album for the ZX
Spectrum 48k - I would be a happy and slighly less hinged
man.